Neurosurgeon appeals jail term over cocaine deaths
A SYDNEY neurosurgeon jailed after two escorts died following cocaine-fuelled sex sessions in his home is appealing against his sentence.
Suresh Surendranath Nair was sentenced to a minimum of five years and three months in the NSW District Court in August 2011 after pleading guilty to a number of charges, including supplying cocaine to Victoria McIntyre, 23, who died in hospital after a sex session at his Elizabeth Bay flat in February 2009.
He also pleaded guilty to manslaughter, by gross negligence, in failing to call an ambulance for another girl - Suellen Domingues-Zaupa, 22, who died in his flat in November 2009.
In appealing the sentence at the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday, Nair's barrister Tim Game SC said the sentence for supplying cocaine to Ms McIntyre was excessive.
There was no medical evidence that she died as a direct result of ingesting the drug, he said.
The court heard it's still not known what happened in the hour between Ms McIntyre arriving at Nair's flat, and the neurosurgeon calling triple-0 just before noon on February 15, 2009.
Maria Cinque said it was "suffice to say that she died as a result of what happened during that period".
In sentencing, Judge Robert Toner found the former neurosurgeon's behaviour was not the result of drug addiction. "Both his use of cocaine and his liberal provision of it to others were hugely indulgent and designed to heighten his own self-gratification."
Justices John Basten, Carolyn Simpson and Reg Blanch reserved their decision on his appeal.
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